


Not this way

by Welsper



Category: Dr. STONE (Anime)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Multi, Zombies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-01
Updated: 2019-11-01
Packaged: 2021-01-16 16:56:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 755
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21274586
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Welsper/pseuds/Welsper
Summary: They shouldn't have woken up, but they did.





	Not this way

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Moon_Blitz](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Moon_Blitz/gifts).

“Oof!” Yuzuriha stumbled forward, falling painfully to her knees.

“Ah, I’m sorry, I didn’t see you there,” Yuzuriha said with a smile and rested a hand on the statue’s hand. It was a young girl, no older than herself. She was overgrown with moss and vines and only part of her face was visible, along with the broken off arm Yuzuriha had tripped over. “I’ll apologise properly when you wake up again, okay?”

“Are you alright?” Taiju asked and reached out for her hand.

“I wish we could bring them all back already,” Yuzuriha sighed, her delicate hand resting on a crumbling stone statue.

“We’ll do it, one day. I promise,” Senkuu said and held Yuzuriha’s other hand. They pulled her upwards and she giggled as she tripped into their arms. Taiju took the opportunity to pull them both into a tight hug and Senkuu rolled his eyes. But one look at Yuzuhira told him that she needed that right now. And it wasn’t so bad either…

“It’s going to be alright, Yuzuriha! Senkuu will make all the formula we need! We’ll fix the statues! And everyone will come back,” Taiju reassured her. Senkuu looked at the girl’s statue with a frown. Could she even be brought back, like this? It was too late for some of them, even with the formula.

He froze in Taiju’s arms when he saw the first crack. And then another. Taiji’s grip on the two of them tightened. They had seen others revived, they had known how it felt, but this… this was different. This statue wasn’t even whole. The vines and the moss crumbled and fell to the ground and horror was in their eyes when they saw the full extent of the damage.

Injuries incompatible with life flashed through Senkuu’s mind. But she was _moving_.

“But if she wakes up like that”, Yuzuriha whispered, her eyes wide. A low wail tore through the thick forest air, pained and mournful and hollow. Taiju grit his teeth pushed the two of them behind himself. He held Senkuu back easily when the man tried to move forward to get a better look.

The girl was barely even that any more, crawling towards them with rasping breath, but unhindered by her injuries. She hissed and bit at Taiju as he carefully moved towards her.

“It’s not just her,” Yuzuriha whispered, shaking like a leaf. Pained shrieks and cries and moans echoed through the trees as more and more crumbled stone statues half-awakened from what should have been their final slumber.

“Their nervous systems should be too damaged,” Senkuu said, half in terror, half in fascination. He knew the petrification had healing properties, but nothing was healed here! They were half in pieces, and if it wasn’t so grotesquely unscientific, he’d call them zombies.

“Can’t we help them?” Yuzuriha asked but Senkuu shook his head. It didn’t feel right, leaving that girl behind like that, or any of the others who woke up with her, but it wasn’t even a human any more. There was no mind left in her. In any of them.

“Let’s go!” Taiju shouted and threw the both of them over his shoulders like they weighted nothing. To him, they didn’t. He tore through shrubbery and branches on his way through the forest, back to their homestead. They had erected fences and traps against the wildlife, but now that would be used against…

“We cannot do anything against them alone. We cannot do anything _for _them alone,” Senkuu said as they looked down on the forest from their overlook. Yuzuhira was sobbing quietly against Taiju’s shoulder. Senkuu leaned forward and pressed his forehead against his other shoulder and Taiju pressed a kiss to each other heads, holding them close.

“That Tsukasa… if that happens to all damaged statues eventually, then… shit,” Senkuu cursed. “I had other plans than fighting some lunatic and… whatever they are!” 

“You’ll still make it,” Taiju said, confidence clear in his voice and determination in his eyes. “That future you want to build, you’ll make it there. We’ll make it there, together.”

He smiled as he looked at the two people who were the most dear to him in this entire new and old world. 

“Ten billion percent,” Taiju said. 

“Ten billion percent,” Yuzuriha repeated with a small voice. Tears were drying on her face, but she was smiling again. Nothing could shake those two permanently, huh? 

“Ten billion percent,” Senkuu said. 

If for no other reason, he would do it for those two.


End file.
